All during the making of "The Godfather," director/co-writer Francis
Ford Coppola was worried that he might be yanked off the film at any
moment, or that the film would be taken away from him once it was
finished, and edited by unfriendly hands. But when "The Godfather"
became a historically-significant smash hit, Coppola was immediately
wooed by Paramount to make a sequel.

He had his revenge. Not only did he make the film he (and co-writer and
original "Godfather" author Mario Puzo) wanted to make, but he was paid
better, the movie was much more expensive and lavish -- and some feel
that it's even better than the original. Without picking and choosing
between them, it is safe to say that taken as one movie, "The
Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" is one of the greatest movies
ever made by anyone, anywhere. (And since they're also famous, I'm
going to presume you've already seen them; there are "spoilers" in the
material that follows.)

There's no better depiction of a certain kind of American immigrant
experience, of the pressures that forced a young family man into crime,
and then his son into an even colder, crueler attitude toward the world
around him. Don Vito Corleone became a gangster because it was the
easiest, most immediate way to achieve the American Dream. His son
Michael (Al Pacino), who took over the leadership of the Corleone crime
family at the end of "The Godfather," tried to do what "Pop" would have
done, but his own innate outsider attitude led to a kind of corruption
of the spirit that never touched his father. At the end of "The
Godfather Part II" Michael sits alone in his chilly Lake Tahoe mansion,
thinking about the past, aware of his failure but not in a position to
do anything about it.

He was redeemable up until the point he had his hapless shmoe of an
older brother, Fredo (John Cazale), murdered, shot to death while
quietly fishing on Lake Tahoe. That is something Don Vito would never
have even considered doing; not even the hot-tempered Sonny,
spectacularly killed in "The Godfather," would have gone that far. But
Michael has become remote, cold and dictatorial; it's not so much that
he is sure of himself that it is that he knows he must act as if he is
sure of himself. He makes quick decisions regarding actions that he
carries out over a long period of time; even if he identifies an enemy
early on, he doesn't necessarily act until just the right time. (One of
the very few glitches in "The Godfather Part II" is that we're never
quite sure if he's right about Frankie Pentangeli).

By the end of the film, he has sent away consigliore Tom Hagen (Robert
Duvall), no longer confiding in this man who was raised as his brother.
His wife Kay (Diane Keaton) has left him; his mother (Morgana King) is
dead. Only loyal hit man Al Neri (Richard Bright) and his sister Connie
(Talia Shire) are left -- and Connie is becoming the female equivalent
of Michael. Their mother was warm and caring; Connie becomes colder and
colder.

But "The Godfather Part II" is more than just the decline of the
Corleones. The scenes of Michael, which begin in the early 1950s,
alternate with those of his father Vito, first as a child fleeing
Sicily after his family has been wiped out by the local Mafia don, and
later as a young man (Robert De Niro) trying to put together a life for
himself and his growing family. Coppola intercuts very shrewdly between
the Vito and Michael sequences; the scenes often comment on one
another, sometimes very subtly.

At first, Vito tries to live an honest life, working as a clerk in a
local grocery store, but Black Hand big shot Fanucci (Gastone Moschin)
keeps intruding into Vito's life. Vito meets Clemenza (Bruno Kirby)
when he's tossed a bag of guns to hide; later, Clemenza gets Vito's
help in stealing a rug. By this time, thanks to Fanucci, Vito has lost
his job, so helping Clemenza (they're later joined by others, including
Tessio) in crime does make some money. It turns out that Vito is better
at this than the more thug-like Clemenza and Tessio; he can be quietly
persuasive, making people offers they can't refuse. And he makes a name
for himself in the Little Italy of the early 20th century.

The Michael sequences are launched, as was "The Godfather," by a huge,
lavish party; this one, the first communion of Michael's son, is held
at Lake Tahoe. An unscrupulous senator (G.D. Spradlin) publicly
embraces Michael, but privately shows contempt for him, though he's
willing to bend the law to allow the Corleones access to Las Vegas in
exchange for a lot of money. Soon thereafter, gunmen get onto the
locked Corleone compound and try (but fail) to kill Michael and Kay.

Michael meets with the aging Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), who was a
partner of Don Vito's in the old days. They intend to pool resources to
buy into wide-open Cuba, ripe with night life of all sorts, whose
president Batista gladly welcomes American criminals. Trouble is, this
is just as Castro is launching his last attack....

Michael is betrayed again and again. In the past, in the contrasting
scenes, Vito increases his alliances. (In one of the additional scenes
on the special disc, he even meets with Coppola's own gun-maker
grandfather, and his flute-playing father, as a child.)

Every scene in the film is convincing; it doesn't strike a false note
anywhere. Coppola had a much larger budget for this sequel, and was
able to do a stunning recreation of Little Italy of around 1918 on a
lavish scale. This was before computer graphics; these sets had to be
built for real. And real is just how they look. There's one bravura
shot which begins simply as Vito heads out to deliver some groceries,
and the camera pans across an intersection -- as far as we can see, it
is 1918 New York.

The movie is full of great set pieces like this, which are always in
service to the plot and characters. And what characters. Pacino's very
controlled performance is magnificent, for even though he goes long
periods with very little change in position, his hooded eyes, his
contained gestures, tell us what's going through Michael's mind. At no
point in this film is Michael remotely happy; he's rarely even content.
He is in the process throughout the movie of becoming a bigger monster
than his father ever was, and yet we can still see within him the
idealistic war hero we met at the first of "The Godfather."

The entire cast is excellent; Robert Duvall, of course, always is, and
Diane Keaton is most of the time; she definitely is here. (Oddly
though, when people talk about her career, they almost always overlook
the "Godfather" movies). This was one of Robert De Niro's earliest
starring roles; he's required to do at least something of an impression
of Marlon Brando, but he goes beyond that as well. We recognize him as
the same character Brando played in the first film, but we're also
seeing him becoming that character.

Lee Strasberg was one of the most famous acting teachers who ever
lived, but he himself hadn't done much acting. In fact, "The Godfather
Part II" was his first movie. As Hyman Roth -- based on the real-life
Meyer Lansky -- he's completely convincing. When Richard Castellano
blundered by making unacceptable demands, the role of Clemenza was
quickly turned into Frankie Pentangeli, played beautifully by Michael V
Gazzo. Talia Shire and John Cazale are also good; in fact, the best
acting Shire -- Coppola's sister -- has ever done has been in the three
"Godfather" movies. Watch also for Troy Donahue, Roger Corman, Harry
Dean Stanton and Peter Donat.

Technically, the film is faultless, as usual with the meticulous (if
ambitious) Coppola. The photography by Gordon Willis is, if anything,
better than his work in "The Godfather," for there's more variety to
it. The scenes in Vegas, Miami and Cuba put the lie to the somewhat
contemptuous label some have placed on Willis, "The Prince of
Darkness." He knows how to shoot in bright sunlight, in gaudy
nightclubs, just as well as he does in rooms so dark that only the
highlights are visible.

The commentary track by Coppola is exceptionally good, full of
excellent advice for directors. He explains how he directed big crowd
scenes, leading you to an understanding of just how hard that must be.
A real band is used at one point; many directors would just have dubbed
in the music later, but Coppola explains why he felt a real band was
necessary. And there are some surprising comments, such as that George
Lucas shot some insert scenes. Coppola sounds like a great guy you wish
you could have for a friend.

The extras disc is loaded with cut scenes (some of which were included
in the television "The Godfather Saga"); these scenes have
explanations, but no commentary, and they cannot be played straight
through. You can usually understand why these scenes were cut, but if
you like the films, this stuff is pure gold.

Like "The Godfather," "The Godfather Part II" is so magnetically
compelling, the characters and incidents -- many of which are based on
real criminals and their activities -- are so involving that it's very
easy (for some of us, almost unavoidable) to watch these films again
every couple of years. Paramount's excellent "The Godfather Collection"
on DVD makes this easy.